claudiov958
Hasselblad 500C with 40mm Carl Zeiss 1:4 Distagon
The Hasselblad camera and the Moon,
When in 1957 Victor Hasselblad designed in Sweden the 500C camera, the Moon was not at all in his mind. He was designing a solid, dependable camera that all professionals could rely on and enjoy using. Years later, while NASA was looking to design a camera for the Apollo mission, one of the engineers mentioned that he had a Hasselblad camera at home that was very sturdy. He was asked to bring it for an inspection. The next day the engineers sitting around a table examined the machine and started to take it apart. They removed the external crank, the viewfinder and other parts, ending up with a minimal set of essential parts. In the final version the liquid lubricants were replaced by solid ones to withstand the extreme condition of the lunar surface and other modifications were made to the selected lens. From Apollo 11 to Apollo 17 these cameras took hundreds of pictures of extraordinary resolution. All of them were abandoned stashed in boxes on the surface of the moon where they remain today, only the exposed film was brought back to Earth. This is just a camera many would say, and indeed I agree, but there is something that goes beyond. It is that Victor Hasselblad was not designing a "Moon camera", however his original design worked flawlessly on the surface of another world. Is this the way most things are conceived today? Would our designs go that far beyond its original intent? I truly doubt it, we live in a society of instant gratification and programmed obsolescence. Nothing is thought or intended to last for a long time, most designs are done in a rush and with a shallow vision instead of thought to have a long life of usefulness. When I hold this camera in my hands today, my inspiration comes from my mind and the stimulation of what surrounds me. However, I have the constant feeling that this mighty instrument that still works impeccably after almost 60 years, is also a source of inspiration and certainly an example of excellence.
Claudio Valdés
October 14, 2016
Hasselblad 500C with 40mm Carl Zeiss 1:4 Distagon
The Hasselblad camera and the Moon,
When in 1957 Victor Hasselblad designed in Sweden the 500C camera, the Moon was not at all in his mind. He was designing a solid, dependable camera that all professionals could rely on and enjoy using. Years later, while NASA was looking to design a camera for the Apollo mission, one of the engineers mentioned that he had a Hasselblad camera at home that was very sturdy. He was asked to bring it for an inspection. The next day the engineers sitting around a table examined the machine and started to take it apart. They removed the external crank, the viewfinder and other parts, ending up with a minimal set of essential parts. In the final version the liquid lubricants were replaced by solid ones to withstand the extreme condition of the lunar surface and other modifications were made to the selected lens. From Apollo 11 to Apollo 17 these cameras took hundreds of pictures of extraordinary resolution. All of them were abandoned stashed in boxes on the surface of the moon where they remain today, only the exposed film was brought back to Earth. This is just a camera many would say, and indeed I agree, but there is something that goes beyond. It is that Victor Hasselblad was not designing a "Moon camera", however his original design worked flawlessly on the surface of another world. Is this the way most things are conceived today? Would our designs go that far beyond its original intent? I truly doubt it, we live in a society of instant gratification and programmed obsolescence. Nothing is thought or intended to last for a long time, most designs are done in a rush and with a shallow vision instead of thought to have a long life of usefulness. When I hold this camera in my hands today, my inspiration comes from my mind and the stimulation of what surrounds me. However, I have the constant feeling that this mighty instrument that still works impeccably after almost 60 years, is also a source of inspiration and certainly an example of excellence.
Claudio Valdés
October 14, 2016